LANCASTER University has been named the top university in the North West.

The university sits 12th place nationally, according to The Times & The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023.

Lancaster University - a former Sunday Times University of the Year winner - has consistently featured near the top of the tables in recent years.

It comes after a strong performance in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework resulted in 91 per cent of its research being assessed as internationally excellent or world-leading. 

The guide ranks the country’s 135 universities based on various factors, providing students and parents with a first reference point on the path to finding a university place.

The academic league table is made up of eight indicators including student satisfaction with teaching quality and their wider student experience, research quality, graduate prospects, entrance qualifications held by new students, degree results achieved, student/staff ratios, and degree completion rates.

The guide also found that University of Manchester graduates have been ranked as the No 1 most targeted by the UK’s top employers in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2021-22, while both Liverpool John Moore and Manchester Metropolitan jumped up the league table after significant improvements in this year’s National Student Survey.

The University of Cumbria was ranked last regionally, behind the University of Liverpool, Edge Hill University, Liverpool Hope University, University of Salford, University of Chester, University of Central Lancashire and the University of Bolton.

The University of Cumbria was ranked 129th place nationally – falling five places from last year. The rankings show it has a 72.7 per cent teaching quality score, 67.5 per cent student experience score, 68.2 per cent graduate prospect score and a completion rate of 82.8.

Meanwhile, first-place Lancaster University had a 77.6 per cent teaching quality score, 76.6 per cent student experience score, 82.6 per cent graduate prospect score and a completion rate of 94.1 per cent.

The new edition of The Times & The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023 - a free 96-page supplement - will be published this weekend in The Sunday Times (September 18).